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February 05, 2007

"The Racial Politics of Speaking Well"

Grrr. I'll keep it short, since the article itself is pretty self-explanatory.

One thing I've noticed even since 1994, when I first came here, was that Korean people always seem much more surprised to see me speak in Korean than the white person I'm with, if it's a group of foreigners w/o anyone who looks ethnically Korean.

My friend Beth and I even did this as an experiment at times back in 1994, where we'd go in and be looking at stuff, and the Korean person, if they didn't know English, would always try Korean with her first. One time, in a store in Jongno, I was asking all these questions to an employee and he would answer her. He was kind of doing it unconsciously, but it was more than obvious.

More recently, a similar thing happened when I and two white women were in a restaurant, and no matter what I said, the waiter would answer back to the girls in Korean. They would nod, and we were all smiling at this, since we'd knew this would happen; one of the women mentioned that the waiter should probably talk to me, since I was asking the questions. I think he realized what he was doing and looked kind of embarrassed.

Comments

Grrr. I'll keep it short, since the article itself is pretty self-explanatory.

One thing I've noticed even since 1994, when I first came here, was that Korean people always seem much more surprised to see me speak in Korean than the white person I'm with, if it's a group of foreigners w/o anyone who looks ethnically Korean.

My friend Beth and I even did this as an experiment at times back in 1994, where we'd go in and be looking at stuff, and the Korean person, if they didn't know English, would always try Korean with her first. One time, in a store in Jongno, I was asking all these questions to an employee and he would answer her. He was kind of doing it unconsciously, but it was more than obvious.

More recently, a similar thing happened when I and two white women were in a restaurant, and no matter what I said, the waiter would answer back to the girls in Korean. They would nod, and we were all smiling at this, since we'd knew this would happen; one of the women mentioned that the waiter should probably talk to me, since I was asking the questions. I think he realized what he was doing and looked kind of embarrassed.

"Why Be Critical?"

Before you say this site is "anti-Korean" or bashing Korea – read this: "Why Be Critical?" Chances are, if you're simply angry because I am a social critic in Korea but not actually Korean, see if your argument isn't just a kneejerk response that follows these patterns.

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Photo Classes!

Session 1: Just the Basics
Dealing with the basic operations and functions of your DSLR, explaining each function, button, and doo-hickey. The bulk of the session is likely going to stick around the relationship between aperture and shutter, as well as depth-of-field. Basically everything on your camera has something to do with this relationship.

Session 2: Composition and Shooting (Shooting Session 1)
We'll take those examples and look at them on the big screen, while also answering the concrete questions that will pop up about the stuff we learned before. Then we'll talk about composition and other framing issues, including lens lengths and why some lenses are worth $100 bucks and some are worth $10,000.

Session 3: Flashes and Advanced Exposure (Shooting Session 2)
Dealing with flash, in terms of compensating above and below exposure levels (bracketing), as well as other bracketing techniques in general.

Session 4: Final Session/Critiques
Keeping it open, determined by the class.

Four 3-hour sessions, as well as shooting sessions, photo discussions, and critiques. An individual photo essay will also be done as part of the ongoing class assignments. Inquire at the email address at the top right of this page.

As for my photo book (now in limbo due to editorial differences with the publisher), you can see the representative chapters from the "Seoul Essays" posts below. Note that Chapter 3 remains undone and in limbo on my computer: